time now for "final trades." >> vmw. >> ves peek energy. chk. >> general dynamics long. >> bac, bank america. i'll wear a name tag next time. >> more "fast" at 5:00. "power" starts right now. >> welcome to a special "rise above" edition of "power lunch," live from the nation's capital. the heart of the action today right now on capitol hill, dozens of ceos are working the hallways trying to convince lawmakers to get a deal done and avoid the fiscal cliff. next stop, the white house later this afternoon. good afternoon, everybody. i'm tyler mathisen. it is a big day in this national discussion about how washington can avoid the fiscal cliff. some of the senators in the center of the debate will be stopping by. we may hear from some ceos this hour. we do expect to hear from some of them at a press conference later this hour.

the president, by the way, weighed in on the debate this morning as well. sue, a busy day down here in washington. >> it sure is, ty. indeed it is here as well. we are going to be joined by a very special guest, noted author and investor nassem taleb. after dropping more than 100 points in the early going, the dow sittingality the highs of the day. it's been an extremely volatile trading session, we're up just about 80 points or so. bob pisani joins me from the floor of the nyse. bob, they're parsing every word coming out of capitol hill and house speaker boehner giving a boost to the markets a bit ago. >> he did. he is a little more optimistic. but we're being blown around by the headlines. look at what happened. in the last two days on headlines coming out of the congress, first yesterday senator majority leader reid said there was little progress being made on the fiscal cliff. that was yesterday afternoon. we lost 50 points on the dow. even though mr. reid said he was hopeful a deal could be reached,

damage was done. senator mccobble said democrats should be more actively involved in the debates. he said the president was traveling around the country having complain like stops, he should come back to the capitol and make a deal. today representativeboehner saying he was optimistic a cliff deal could be rachd. the market rallied nicely on that after disappointing new home sales results. just in the last hour, we've rallied because the president has come out and said he would like to have a deal on the fis calf cliff by christmas. that's exactly what the markets want to hear. they want a timetable for when a deal can be reached and they want it before the end of the year. we move up to the highs of the day on that news. >> a deal by christmas with a bow on it perhaps, bob. dozens of ceos as we mentioned earlier meeting with congressional leaders right now to discuss how to avoid the cliff. they're part of a group called fix the debt which is calling on our elected officials to step up

to solve the nation's fiscal challenges. a eamon javers speaking with them on capitol hill. >> i want to build on what bob pisani just said. there is no question markets are hanging on every word coming out of this capitol hill fiscal cliff debate but i'm not sure markets are getsing this right. listen to the speaker boehner sound bite that rallied the market earlier this morning. then on the other side i want to explain what he was actually saying there. take a listen. >> it's time for the president and democrats to get serious about the spending problem that our country has. but i'm optimistic that we can continue to work together to avert this crisis and sooner rather than later. >> now the market rallied on boehner saying he was optimistic. we saw a nice little balance in the dow jones after those comments came automatic. but the markets should not necessarily be rallying on everyone of these statements because lot of them are simply boiler plate, place holder kinds

of statements that members of congress typically make. speaking of people up here on capitol hill, i also talked to goldman sachs ceo lloyd blankfein who told me or not way into the meetings today of what his vision is what the deal should actually be cut should look like. >> you don't want to burden people who are the least able to afford it. at the same time you don't want to disincentivize the economy and being too restrictive and cut off growth. it would be easy if there was a right and wrong. everything is right here so it is a matter of judgment, what proportion you come back in these things. but i think both sides have to be touched in this, entitlements have to be touched and revenue has to be touched. >> that's the message lloyd blankfein is delivering right now to members of congress on the hill and what he'll say to the president later on today. as eamon mentioned, the president will not only meet with mr. blankfein but a number of other ceos at the white house

later today to sell that fiscal cliff plan to them. president earlier today out speaking about it. our chief washington correspondent john harwood is live at the white house with some details on that. hi, john. >> reporter: hi, sue. i echo eamon. i think wall street ought to pay a little bit less attention to the statements that are coming out every day because we've got a long way to go on this roller coaster ride. we've got a live picture of jay carney briefing at the white house right now. that's the beginning of the public events at the white house along with the president's remarks earlier. later those ceos are going to make their way up to the white house, have a private meeting with the president. the president has already said that trying to build on momentum that he's gained from the election made the point today that congress ought to take a deal offered by democrats to go ahead and extend the bush tax cuts but only for the people below $200,000 in income. here's the president.

>> the senate's already passed a bill that keeps income taxes from going up on middle class families. democrats in the house are ready to vote for that same bill today. if we can get a few house republicans to agree as well, i'll sign this bill as soon as congress sends it my way. >> reporter: this is the president trying to take advantage of having the high ground in public opinion but we've heard from erskine bowles in the last 24 hours that the white house is privately showing some flexibility on the issue of the top tax rates. the administration believes they have to go up swla to get money they need to strike a deal, but not necessarily to 39.6% according to erskine bowles. >> john harwood, thank you. investors of course watching the fiscal cliff chess match very closely. as bob showed us, the markets are moving on every bit of news. will there be a compromise to talk about that on capitol hill, senator john hovan, the former

gove govern. we just talked about how markets, investsers and public are watching everything you guys are saying here. probably watching what you're saying right now. are you aware how closely they're watching and how sensitively they're acting and reacting? >> i think so. look, we need to get a bill deal. it is very important that we avert fiscal cliff and do it by not only getting pro-growth tax reform but entitlement reform and better spending control and get the kind of deal in the $4 trillion range that's going to provide certainty and get our economy going. because ultimately we need to get people back to work and it is that growing economy that's going to create the revenue that gets us out of the deficit. >> a $4 trillion deal would be your goal. i want to focus on maybe something that hasn't been talked about as much, and that's entitlement reform. and the big one here would be medicaid and especially medicare. if you had to tell your democrat

colleagues, here is the one reform that i think you should make to medicare, to reduce the growth and expenditure there, what would it be? would it be increasing the eligibility age? would it mean that the wealthy have to pay more? what would it be? >> there are any number of those things. you say to people at or near retirement, we're not going to change it for you. but for younger people, they want a change. they'll support it because we've got to make sure these entitlement programs are solvent both now and for the future. so i believe we can come together in a bipartisan way and do this. it's got to be part of a package in order to get the job done. >> i couldn't agree with you more on that because the history of american workers over the past 24 years is that we have adjusted to reduced benefits, to changes in our benefits plans, if we're given time to get used to it. let's talk about defense cuts. this, too, is an area, as mr. bowles says, we spend more on defense then the next 16, 17

countries combined. what defense program would you be willing to see cut. i know there are sensitive issues in your state about the nuclear arsenal there, even some transport planes that the air force would say we can do without but you support? what would you see cut there? >> i think we can look at some of our overseas bases and some of those kinds of things. i think there are areas we can find savings. but remember under the budget control act we've already reduced spending on the military by half a trillion dollars which is why i don't see the sequestration. i think we can find savings in a good, solid, sound prudent way but let's prioritize, whether it is the military or anything else. again we've already made a commitment to reductions in the military through the budget control act. >> let's talk a little bit about revenues. one of the guys lo's at the heart of this whole debate is a man named grover norquist. did you sign the grover pledge? >> no, i did not. i was a governor for ten years. i've got a long track record of not only holding the line on taxes but reducing taxes. and i believe that we have too

much -- at the national level, too much taxation, too much regulation but, no, i did not sign the pledge. >> let me ask you about the idea that revenues are on the table as the speaker has said. i'm curious what that really means. does that signal a willingness on the part of the gop to see some people's taxes go up, or does it mean that the revenue increases will derive from economic growth and -- >> speaker boehner and republicans are reaching out to the administration. speaker boehner has said we'll put revenue on the table, not through higher tax rates but through closing loopholes and limiting deductions. that accomplishes exactly what the administration has demanded. >> but that means somebody's taxes will go up. >> sure. >> if you close loopholes an deductions. >> we'll make sure rates don't go up so you don't impact small businesses or middle class

americans who obviously are struggling to get going and get back to work and get our economy going. but by closing those loopholes, your higher income people will effectively pay more. so that accomplishes what president obama's asking for. now he has to reach back and say, yes, we're going to find some savings to truly -- >> senator hoeven, i know you are aware of our rise above campaign here on cnbc. here is a button. we hope you will wear it proudly. this is a north dakota edition of "power lunch." well, whether to say with the norquist no tax hike pledge is now hot debate for republicans as you can see right there in washington. the once belle of the ball is now being pushed aside. politico's chief white house correspondent mike allen spoke with mr. norquist this morning. welcome to "power lunch." mr. norquist didn't seem to soften at all. as a matter of fact from what i've read, he kind of bristled.

one quote from the debrief will you this morning was the party cannot have its fingerprints on the murder weapon, meaning raising taxes. how do you see this all playing out? we just heard from a senator who did not sign his pledge. you know, is mr. norquist now really be pushed aside by the party? >> grover norquist is a survivor. he has a business, $7 million budget. spent $25 million in campaigns this cycles. he doesn't want to be seen as a dead-ender. he doesn't want his power to melt away bite by bite win the views like that. what we saw today was him providing a little path for republicans and, yeah, that very colorful point about the murder weapon, but he went on to say that republicans need to push for reform which speaker boehner has been doing, and to be clear about it, and he said the deal needs to be able to pass the laugh test back home. and he says it needs to be done in public.

he wants it done on cnbc or on c-span the way some people wanted the health care deal done. so his argument is that if republicans are up front about what they want and what they're pushing for, they'll be able to survive whatever deal they ultimately have to go along with. >> you say mr. norquist wants to see it done in public. isn't that what we are seeing to a certain extent right now? we had speaker boehner out making his comments earlier today. we saw the market move on that. then we had the president out with a number of every day americans standing behind him making his case and saying that he wants a deal by christmas. does that particular process of having both sides come and take the microphone help the process or hurt the process, do you think? >> i think it makes no difference to it. the real discussions are going on when we're not there. and as you were pointing out at the top of your coverage, you have to sort of read between the lines of what they're saying. if you really are going to be tough with someone, why not go out and be nice on camera.

sue, i can tell you from our reporting we think there's more progress than people have sort of been able to see so far. i think that they are on a path to be able to do that deal by christmas. their real deadline is december 23rd. they want to get out of here. >> all right, on that note, mike allen, thanks. coming up, an interview you do not want to miss because when he speaks, wall street and global investors sit up and listen. author of "the black swan," nassem taleb joins us at cnbc headquarters. he's just written a new book. we'll talk about that and get his take on the fiscal cliff and the drama playing out in washington and the markets. he has some very interesting opinions. back in a moment. over president obama's first term, the federal debt to gdp ratio increased over 19%. it is projected to increase over 20% by the end of his second term. er --

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm kayla tausche with a "market flash." we saw the market turn into the green following the president's remarks. that's been really good for the consumer staples sector which is to the up side by .75%. we have stocks like costco, safeway, walmart. those key retailers in the consumer sector all rushing to the up side. >> kayla, thank you. nassim taleb spotted the

financial crisis of 2008 before anybody else did. he is the author of "the black swan," it was a groundbreaking look at highly improbable events with massive repercussions. his new book is called "antifragile -- things that gain from disorder." it is nice to have you back with us. pleasure to see you. >> thanks. very honored. >> tell me what antifragile is. what does it mean? >> all right. when you ask people what's the opposite of fragile, they're going to tell you solid, robust, resilient, adaptable, all that stuff. it's not true. antifragile is something that gains from disorder, not something that's safe. something that requires disorder, requires volatility, requires vulnerability, requires some kind of stress -- up to a point, of course. >> can you give us an example of what sort of things are fraent fragile. >> i started my life as an option trader. for a long time i thought of nothing except in terms of he's short volatility, long volatility. if you had an option portfolio

that's gabd frined from turmoil ibts's hurt by turmoil. i realize there are applications to real life. there's nothing organic that doesn't require some amount of disorder. your bones, they want stressors. if you don't send stress to your bones, they're going to become brittle. the same as people go to the health club to stress their muscles. the same thing applies to the economy. if the restaurant business had no stressors, you would be eating now soviet style cafeteria food. right? >> but you have basically three categories that you can put things into. some things are fragile. some things are robust meaning they can withstand shock. and then the antifragile is what can really gain from volatility and stress. >> exactly. and the economy -- the problem is people misunderstand the economy. the mistake the economy is something that used to be like the brooklyn bridge, strong and

robust. you have to gain from errors. that's not how we got here. otherwise you'd have something like soviet russia, built from top-down. >> we took some of the key stressors from the markets that are out there. and there are a number of them these days, certainly. we'd like you to go through and tell us whether they're fragile, robust or antifragile. start with the fiscal cliff because it is what everybody on wall street is watching. is it fragile, antifragile or robust. >> for me it is a good thing because the economy requires once in a while to be shaken and people to be scared. otherwise we got trouble. sort of livg theke equivalent o forest that hasn't had forest fire in a while. you need once in a while to jolt the market so people realize that there is something wrong and we have to do something about it. and we need these fiscal cliffs and similar situation to shake politicians. >> because they have no skin in the game according to you. >> that is a big problem. there's some category of people

who have the up side and no downside. and effectively, they have -- the downside is borne by us april 15, tax day. we pay the bill. >> yes, that is a stressor. >> we have a downside. like long volatility, we benefit from this order and the rest of us are antifragile. you want to eliminate that symmetry in society. at no time have we had that many people in power in mallkind wnk is no skin in the game. >> politicians benefit from disorder, they ultimately save the day. they want society to be fragile so they can come in, save the day. >> we have that transfer fragility from the bankers to us from these people and my whole idea -- it actually became obsessive idea for me -- is how do you re-establish with very simple rules some symmetry in society and eliminate -- because we have so much systemic risk

coming from the fact that some people have nothing but up side. >> europe would be speaking of systemic risk. >> think of the best country in the world in my opinion from standpoint of fragility. perhaps the most-antifragile one is switzerland. the mayor is responsible and ashamed when he makes a mistake. unlike someone in washington. where the country is appropriate the most successfully one in mankind. >> is europe learning from switzerland? >> the fragility of e -- okay -- is past. in the process of breaking. and gradual and slow transformation into -- if you want europe to survive, it is going to move to something closer to switzerland. >> how about eequipped and the middle east? that's another big stressor. >> egypt is a prime case of what i -- let me invent a word here -- gran greenspanization of

something. egypt, the policy of the western world was egypt by propping up mubarak to have stability, quote, unquote, was account of greenspan stability we have, that kind of pseudo moderation. things were brewing under the surface and now we pay the price after 40 years of sadat and the other fellow. so now we have to pay the price. what's going to happen? nobody knows. even the players don't know. we still don't know. i don't think it is going -- we're going to move to democracy overnight. we're going to have turmoil. i don't know what's going to happen but that's identical to the trying to eliminate overstabilization of something makes it weaker. that's what we have in egypt. >> the key message is you need volatility, you need stressors in the system, and you need

companies and you need markets who can survive those stressors and thrive by them. >> exactly. we need to encourage people to take certain classes of risk. we need more small fluctuation and fewer big crises. in fact we have the exact opposite. things are smooth but with big -- >> very quickly. you said four rules. can you give them quick to us? >> remember the first one is the economy, don't mistake the economy -- the economy is more like a cat than a washing machine. the second rule is small is beautiful because it is less fragile. decentralize that small. third rule is skin in a game to make sure that nobody's antifragile at the expense of others. and a fourth rule -- i mean i have like six or seven rules. let me pick one at random -- a good rule is that -- >> by antifragile. >> no. very important rule is to make sure that bailouts help individuals, not companies.

in fact we have the exact opposite. we're going to have social unrest if it continues. >> that is a great place to leave it. it is a very interesting and thought provoking book. nice to have you back with us. >> thanks for inviting me. >> pleasure to have you. "antifragile." and i think it is going to be a best seller, ty. >> thank you very much, sue. congressional leaders meeting with america's ceos at this hour to discuss solving our fiscal mess. they're going to hold a press conference shortly and we will take it live. before that though, we're going to speak with democratic senator kent conrad of north dakota. he's chairman of the senate budget committee. what's he willing to compromise on? plus, the gold trade break down and we will head live to the nymex to find out how traders are positioning themselves right now. we'll be right back. maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows...

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the next chart shows, euro currency short covering rally, unchanged on the day. we had a very solid opening many hours ago in the yen versus the dollar. you see on that chart of the dollar/yen. even though the dollar index is only off .1%, it continues to hover around 80.5, very pivotal levels. gold has been breaking down in a risk-off trade. a big one. prices getting ready to close right now. sharon epperson is tracking the action for us at the nymex. sell-offs seem to have abated a little bit at this point, sharon. >> looks like we'll close down around $25 here in the gold market but we were down as much as $36 and much of that selling happened right at the open of floor trading. of course as you mentioned, it is a risk-off day pretty much across the board in commodities but it is definitely most pronounced here in the gold market. at least in terms of the intensity and volumes that we're seeing. we're looking at the biggest one day slide for gold we've seen in about three weeks.

we're near a two-week low for the gold price. i want to bring in a veteran trader who trades gold futures here at the nymex to find out what happened at the open. we saw such heavy volume. seeing it nearly double the average daily volume already today in gold. a lot of that came at the open. what triggered the sell-off? >> well, gold has been in the midst of a risk-off trade. let's step back to yesterday. somebody stepped in and bought 15,000 to 20,000 front month puts. whether for protection or initiation, very hard to tell. on the open we saw 13,000 contracts hit the open and sell it down $30. >> do you think this has anything to do as well with the fiscal cliff and if so, why wouldn't the anxiety over that cause more buying in gold? >> i think the fiscal cliff is looming. it is kind of in the background. but the sell-off is really triggered by the put buying from yesterday. some kind of fund liquidating.

>> we'll send it over to you. we'll speak with a key player in the fiscal cliff negotiations, senator kent conrad from north dakota just joined me. plus warren buffett saying earlier on cnbc saying under his plan he'd pay a 35% tax on all the money he earns. good move? we'll discuss it when we come back.

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all three of the major indices in the green with the dow leading the way up 66 points on the trading session or .5%. down to the nyse floor, trading action there, bob pisani is back with us. bob, they've been watching washington but what else is on the radar screen today? >> the market really does move exactly on the headlines. we moved to the highs of the day as president obama came out about an hour and a half ago and said he was hopeful a deal could be reached on the fiscal cliff by christmas. that's what traders want to hear, they want a timeline, some clear indication when these negotiations are going to be over. elsewhere, there seems to be a little bit more optimism recently. i noticed stocks that are multi-industry. these are companies that work across many boundaries, many

international borders and sell a lot of different products to a lot of different industries. we're all stronger today. johnson controls, eaton corporation, companies like that. right near multi-minute highs. that's certainly a very good sign. retailers continue to report relatively good news. we had positive comments from american eagle and express, all those stocks up 4%, 5%, 6%, 7%. express up about 11%. again, a little bit of a disappointment because their current numbers weren't that good but quarter comments for the fourth quarter were very positive. to the nasdaq now where bertha coombs is following the big movers over there. >> consumer discretionary strong here. green mountain coffee after much better than expected earnings up 25% near the highs of the day. costco is issuing $3 billion in debt in order to pay a special $7 a share dividend ahead of the fiscal cliff. r.i.m. started lower after

losing a court case to nokia, a ruling. but it is now positive in a big turnaround today. groupon, the ceo came out saying whatever rumors are that the board is looking at may be getting rid of me, i would look at getting rid of me if i fail. starbucks has a new coffee -- $7 a cup. $80 a pound. called geisha. a silky fought feel. president obama says he believes the framework for a debt reduction deal can be reached by kras map. how realistic is that given all the partisanship and rhetoric? joining me senator kent conrad, democrat from north dakota and outgoing chairman of the senate budget committee because he's retiring. you said earlier all these ceos are really down here just to recruit you in retirement.

right? >> that's been my understanding. >> that's why they're here. were you in one of the meetings earlier today. what was the tone of it? who was there? how did it go? what did they say? >>hereere about ten senators in the meeting that i was in. there were about equal number of ceos from some of the largest institutions in the country. what they were saying is just do it. get a deal. understand the urgency of this matter because they believe that if we don't get an agreement -- at least a framework agreement, that there will be real consequences in terms of slipping back into recession, losing jobs, losing growth in the economy. >> do the senators get it? do they specifically get the idea, as we've seen already today, when the speaker speaks, miss pelosi speaks, the president, the markets go up and down. right now when they are listening to you, they'll probably going what's conrad saying, he's a key player here. i better listen. do they get it? >> yeah, i think most do. but look, we understand there is a certain amount of posturing

because this is a negotiation. the deal is never done until it's done. and this absolutely can be done. it can be done in time. so much homework has been done behind the scenes, whether it was bowles-simpson or group of eight or the special committee. so a lot of the hard work is done. >> have the differences been narrowed? >> yeah, absolutely. no question differences narrows in two days. one, a most republicans -- at least many now -- recognize revenue has to be a part of it and it has got to be real, it can't be phony. and i think most democrats recognize you've got do something on the entitlement side of the ledger in terms of spending. because that's the part of spending that is growing most rapidly. >> so let's go to that. you're an outgoing senator. so you don't have to face the electorate again should you choose not to. specifically on medicare and medicaid, what is the single reform that you think would do the best job that you would urge your fellow democrats to accept

as a way to slow the growth in medicare spending? is it raising the eligibility age? raising the amount that the wealthy have to pay, co-pays, et cetera, what is it? >> look, i have voted for all of the above and i did it when i was running for re-election. it wasn't a political thing with me. i believe deeply that we got to get the country back on track. we're borrowing 31 cents of every dollar that we spend. clearly that's not sustainable. we know that our debt is now over 100% of our gross domestic product and headed higher. so we know steps have to be taken. the fastest growing part of federal spending are the health care accounts. we're spending 1 in every $6 in this economy on health care. >> the specific way to cut that, what is it? >> my number one recommendation -- >> yeah. >> -- would be better coordination of care for the chronically ill. 5% of medicare beneficiaries -- 5% -- use 50% of the money. >> mostly end of life care.

right. >> a lot of it end of life care but a lot of it is not end of life care. it is for the chronically ill. people with multiple serious conditions. we do a very poor job of coordinating the care for those people. as a result, a lot of money is wasted. >> one final question quickly on farm subsidies. which ones could you see cut? >> direct payments. but beyond that, i supported legislation here in the senate, passed the senate, save $23 billion out of agriculture. that committee has done more on deficit reduction than all the other committees combined so far. >> senator conrad, here's one of our "rise above" buttons. now if you wear it, we're going steady. i understand that? senator kent conrad, congratulations on a fine year and good luck whatever you do next. >> wait a second. i'm wearing a "rise above" button. i thought we were going steady, ty. during tyler's interview with senator conrad we moved to the highs of the trading session

with the dow jones industrial average up about 86 points. we pulled back just a few points, up 78 points on the trading session. let's recap for you some of the other big headlines that have been driving today's session. steve cohen's sac capital receiving a wells notice from the s.e.c. saying it may take civil action against the $14 billion hedge fund. this comes after former sac portfolio manager matthew martoma was accused of running a $276 million insider trading scheme. two firms are making a play for knight capital. all week long on cnbc we're looking at the power players in washington. we are asking their constituents whether or not they are rising above to help solve the fiscal cliff. jane wells is live in the house minority leaders' home state. >> reporter: sue, coming up we're going to go to nancy pelosi's district to ask her constituents what they think of her, what they want from her, and if they're actually worried the fiscal cliff will happen.

pg with the emphasis on "lunch" when we come back. in october 2004, our national debt was $7.4 trillion. today that number has more than doubled to over $16 trillion. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] 'tis the season to discover the kid in all of us. the memories that last, start with the gifts that last. ♪ enjoy free shipping and great values on your holiday shopping from l.l.bean. i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night.

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i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. welcome back to cnbc. we've got a "market flash." we're watching shafrs time warner. that's twx. stock climbing higher. it is up about 1% today to $46.85 but it is a six-year high for that stock, largely fueled by speculation about a new president for cnn coming in at end of the year with lots of speculation whether that would be former n eer nbc alum jeff z. we're having a little bit of fun with today's yahoo! finance poll. the big powerball jackpot is out

there. when you win tonight's drawing what will you do first? 24% said quit my job. 13% said pay my taxes. 16% said donate to charity. but 47% change my phone number. can't blame them for that certainly. now to brian sullivan for what's coming up on a very special edition of "street signs" today. hi, brian. >> hey, sue. it is going to be champagne wishes and caviar dreams on "street signs" today because our recovery road trip wraps up. we are in the number one city for the stock market over the past year. all ten stocks at our cnbc index were higher year over year. we have got a great guest lineup. we've got the mayor, some ceos, we've got a billionaire who owns a local football team. i can't give it away because you'd know where i am. we have the beluga, it is going to be a whale of a show. whale of a show. >> indeed, a whale of a show. have fun! we'll see you at 2:00 p.m.

ceos are meetsing with congressional leaders to discuss fixing our fiscal mess. they are expected to hold a news conference just moments from now as you look at that podium. we're looking at the power players in washington and asking their constituents whether or not they are rising above to help solve this fiscal cliff issue. jane wells is in los angeles focusing on house minority leader nancy pelosi's home state of california. >> reporter: hi, sue. nancy pelosi is a crucial part of the discussion to avoid the fiscal cliff, representing one of the most liberal and successful cities in america. what do folks back home in san francisco expect her to do to avoid what some say will be an economic catastrophe. for nearly 20 years, kurt has been serving up breakfast at dottie's true blue diner. running a small business, especially a restaurant, is not for the weak. so he wonders why washington can't get its act together. >> if i ran my business the way

the government is run, i wouldn't be in business. he's a constituent of one of the most powerful people in washington, nancy pelosi. here's a news flash. not everybody in america believes economic armageddon is at hand. not even former mayor gavin newsom, california's lieutenant governor. >> i don't know why i'm not losing sleep over it. i think there are good people on both sides of the aisle that they're mature enough to get something done. >> kurt agrees when i asked if he was preparing for the fiscal cliff. he answered bluntly -- no. i think there are a lot of of square tactics. >> jane, thank you very much. we are waiting a press conference to be held by the people who have organized this sort of flurry of activity on capitol hill today by academics,

business leaders and other policy experts. group's name is fix the debt. it is spearheaded by erskine bowles and maya mcginnis, two people who have been very involved in the conversation about what to do to keep the country from going over the fiscal cliff and get us on a long-term path towards greater budgetary taxing, spending, budgetary stability, sue. >> indeed, ty. i'm going to be fascinated to see what those ceos tell us and whether or not -- and what reception they got from the white house and what ideas they think might be able to bring both sides together. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. the news conference will begin then.

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we don't want you to bet the country. we want you to fix the country. and we had a number of productive meetings in the past couple days. the white house with the leadership of both the senate and the house, diverse groups of house members -- >> that is maya mcginnis, who i almost always want to call maya angelou for some reason. but it is not. it is maya mcginnis, one of the organizers of fix the debt, the campaign that's organized some 60 ceos, heads of non-profits, academics and others to come up

on capitol hill today to talk about solutions to the fiscal cliff problem. i'm joined now by john carney of cnbc.com, bob pisani. we'll listen in as warranted there to the press conference that's taking place on the hill. sue is with us. bob, we've been asking some of the senators today whether they are aware of how closely the markets are watching every little twitch, every little statement that comes out of anybody on capitol hill's mouth. >> i think that they are. i hope they'll be more aware after events like today. i noticed jim gorman, ceo of morgan stanley, telling them get to your congressman. we support that idea, the "rise above" pins. not telling anybody to support a specific deal but a deal needs to be made. i think more pressure that's put on them, the more you hear ceos speaking out, more events like this, the better it is going to be. >> it is a little bit bizarre in

having people like james gorman and lloyd blankfein telling the federal government to get their house in order. >> that's what i was going to say. a year ago lloyd blankfein was being vilified in "rolling stone" and other publications. and now he's down at the white house giving the president some advice. i believe this is mr. bertolini of aetna. >> -- this nation is one grand bargain away from leading the world out of ifts recession and dominating the world's economy for the next 50 years. so we had very comprehensive and frank conversations today with leaders of congress. the good news is that everybody understands the urgency about what needs to be done and how quickly it needs to be done. secondly, they have a good idea what the issues are. there aren't a whole lot. they're pretty much around what do we do about revenue and what do we do about entitlement

reform. the bad news -- we are running out of time. my latest calculation, we're 802 hours away from having a big problem that will send the economy into recession and put people out of work. and we don't want to see that happen. so we encourage congress and the would you be -- >> all right. saying -- john carney, maybe you can comment on this -- he said there weren't a lot of issues and that everybody has a good grasp of what those issues are. >> but they're two big ones, right? taxes and spending. >> they are two big ones. we have two parties that are diametrically opposed on how to solve the problem so there may not be a lot of issues but they're biggies. >> one of the very interesting facts about this whole debate is that both sides are wrong. democrats think that if we don't -- that we'll have to cut spending if we don't raise taxes. republicans think that if they keep taxes low, spending will stay low. i showed on cnbc.com that's not

true at all. actually low taxes go with high spending historically. so the whole debate that's taking place around false premises that neither side seems to be aware of. >> i think we're going to have a deal. i don't know how you feel, tyler, but the pressure now is really building and i hope -- listen. jim gorman might have been a poster child for wall street excess along with lloyd blankfein a year ago but for sure this kind of pressure is going to be needed to get a deal done by christmas which is what president obama said he wanted. >> we will see. we'll continue to monitor the headlines that are coming out of this news conference and the market's response to it. we were up at the highs of the trading session a short while ago, up 86 points. right now the dow is up 76 points. coming up in the next hour -- 54 companies announcing special dividends in november. real motive behind those is coming up on "street signs." back in a moment. [ male announcer ] this is steve.

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syou know, i've helped alot ofof people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) awhat strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the markets right now are awaiting with the market up 80 points, they're certainly waiting for any more news out of

capitol hill. but we are also moments away from the fed's beige book report on the economy. as a result of that, the markets may respond to that, too. we're up 80 points on the dow jones industrial average, up about 6 on the s&p 500 and up almost 12 on the nasdaq composite. >> i think we should rename that beige book 50 shades of beige. how does that work for you? we're going to be covering all afternoon the ongoing discussions here on capitol hill that have basically wrapped up for now among people in congress and the business community. and at 4:45 today the action moves down the street, down pennsylvania avenue to the white house where more of the folks from business will be talking about the fiscal cliff. >> all right, ty. that will do it for us on "power lunch." breaking news on the economy moments away on "street signs." hello and welcome, everybody, to a very special edition of "street signs." we are just seconds away from breaking headl